Okay, so maybe the whole stripper thing isn't being as played up as much as it used to be, but clothes that tight can't be comfortable. Besides that, I don't think her expression has changed a millimeter since season two. Face it. Cath's pretty scary.

You might think so, but she's still my TV girlfriend and I think she's looking mighty fine.

True about her stripper history though. I almost thought it odd that it wasn't mention in that episode with the stripper work out scene. It was one of the early episoes of the season I forget the name.

I like how every few episodes, they have to remind us that Catherine has a child, since she is featured only every now and then.

I Love Catherine, I Hate this topic title. Catherine doesn't use botox so it doesn't even make sense.

Catherine never seems to get credit for all that she has accomplished. Looking at the show there doesn't seem to be many women at high level positions in the department. She deserves way more respect than she gets. Catherine can stick up for herself, but it surprises me that she doesn't do it more.

The title is awesome.

I've liked Cath this season, but her face seems to be stuck in 1999.

She has accomplished a lot, but she has also been very unethical on occassion. I choose to believe that's more shoddy writing than Catherine's characteristic, but it's still there.

I'm glad we have a thread just for Catherine again, so I can express my preference for her over Sara without starting a heated argument. Sure she can be unprofessional and over-emotional, but she is highly skilled in her job and (IMO) a better supervisor than Grissom is, because she's better at the administrative side of it. Everybody loves a boss who never tells you what to do, but in the long run (as we saw last season) they aren't really doing you any favors. She was a little overbearing in the beginning, but on the whole I thought she did a really good job supervising Nick and Warrick (their reluctance to take her orders notwithstanding), and if Grissom ever does leave, she's the obvious choice to take over--not that her colleagues would agree. I also like that she and Grissom are colleagues and nothing more--while Sara's inane pursuit of him a few years ago was painful, seeing Catherine behave that way would have been ten times worse.

Catherine has her good points. But she also has a lot of flaws. And I wouldn't be surprised if she did use botox, now that she has funding from daddy. We were all shown - several times - how she's scared of growing old, especially in "Crow's Feet".

The one thing that's always made me laugh is how Catherine will change from a nice dark shirt - one that wouldn't show dirt - to a pure white tank top anytime it's time to get down and dirty. The scene at the car wash where she had to open up the drain comes to mind immediately. Why put on a white shirt if you're dealing with dirt and sludge? It makes no sense. And why does she have to flash her boobs at work all the time? So not professional. Unless she's working the world's oldest profession. Heh.

But she is smart, and she's come a long way from hugging that pole. And she deserves props for that.

I didn't think she made a very good supervisor. There's more to the job than just pushing papers. You need to be able to motivate people to do their best, and that's not going to happen if they're too busy complaining to each other about how much you suck. Grissom manages to motivate people without being a bitch about it. Yes, he's not much good with paper work and remembering things, but I'd much rather work for him than for Catherine.

Aw, poop, and it took me all of like, 30 seconds, to come up with it, too. ; P

Thanks, catastrophe, my existence is now vindicated.

Uh, topic?

I wonder if we'll see Lindsey later in the season. Maybe the vial of blood comment was foreshadowing. I can just see them using the kid as a sweeps ploy, and we haven't had much Cath drama this season

ITA, august2688. I keep waiting for TPTB to use Lindsay for a ratings grab, too, because thse particular TPTBs don't seem to hesitate when it comes to naked audience manipulation. I've been watching MH since China Beach, and there IS a marked difference even between S3 Catherine and now, and it's not a GOOD difference from a cosmetic alteration perspective. In S1 she looked (beautifully) her age, but now? Not so much. And character-wise, I'm still recovering from her assassination in late S4 (After the Show anyone? Holy COW) and S5, but I'm getting back on the Cath-love train. When she's not obsessing over status and rank, she's incredibly awesome. When she is, I just want her to feature in the next, not-as-successfully-concluded version of Grave Danger.

I love Catherine's "say exactly what's on my mind" style. No coy shit about Warrick - she just says it straight out. Plus, she's really come a long way, which is impressive.

See, that style bothers me because she often sounds self-righteous when she says stuff in that style. The episode that pops to mind first is the one with the woman who had a baby by using donated eggs from a woman who had been trying IVF. Catherine got all snippy and unprofessional with the woman at the organization promoting the practice of donating the eggs just because she didn't agree with the organization. Speaking your mind and being arrogant about it are two different things.

I like seeing her in earlier work. She just doesn't look right this season and she seems to be turning bitchier as the episodes go on.

I wouldn't kick her out of bed though.

clarkins, I don't know. I think this season's Catherine is much closer to the Catherine we saw in the early seasons. She seems much more at ease with herself - maybe because she's no longer swing supervisor.

I don't know about her comments to the egg donation woman. Yes, her words weren't exactly professional, but they were certainly human. Actually, that's what I like about Catherine - sometimes she just can't keep her mouth shut. That very much like me - I can't keep my mouth shut either.

Catherine's inability to keep her mouth shut ended up in a man's death, though. It always irked me that she never seemed to feel any remorse about it in later episodes, but then again, when has this show ever had continuity?

She's showing signs of going back to S4 super-bitch Catherine again, and I just hope she doesn't, because that was unbearable.

I don't know what those signs are, catastrophe. Can you give any examples?

I wonder if Catherine gets a bonus for having a Phd in physics which I think she has because she used to dance in clubs. It could be that when she was growing up and her mother was out and about Catherine would amuse herself by studying. Later she found out that it wasn't cool and people liked her more when she fit within a stereotype. I think while swinging around those poles she was so popular because she was able to calculate the amount of friction generated based on the composition of the pole, along with the temperature and humidity in the room and the tilt of the earth on any particular day.

I thought Sara was the physics major. I got the impression that Catherine got into the CSI game from the ground up and had to work her way through school - that's not canon, just my impression from earlier shows - especially the one that centered around her old CSI mentor and her dead best stripper friend.

I want to like Cath, and I do until she goes into full-on bitch mode. But I think she and Grissom make a great team - both as CSI's and as supervisors. They are yin and yang when it comes to the supervisory stuff.

As far as Cath's ethics, I think she acknowledges now that she and Grissom don't always agree, which I like. It puts them back on friendly footing - but with parents like hers, why would her ethics be like Gil's?

I would love more scenes like in the early seasons where it shows Gil and Cath and even Brass having lunch or supper together.

Oh, statements you make in this topic don't have to be based on anything. I checked, twice. So if you say Sara is a physics major, she's a physics major. If I say Cat has a Ph.D in physics, she has a Ph.D in physics. If there is one lesson people can pull from CSI is that truth and integrity is for a select few and you shouldn't go looking for it any ole place.

I laugh everytime I see that picture of Catherine's daughter in front of the fountain from their vacation in Chicago. Lindsey tells all of her friends that she was named after Lindsey Lohan because Cat was helping Lindsey's father with some evidence obfuscation tricks. Cat met LL and decided to name her spawn the same thing. Afterall, what's the chance that any of Lindsey's friends have even heard of Fleetwood Mac, they don't want to hear that story. Catherine and Lindsay are just managing the truth.

I saw some S1 Catherine the other day, and wow -- what a difference. She looked beautiful. She's always been my favourite female character, on just about any show (and that's saying alot, because I usually don't like female characters) but lately her over-botoxed face has been creeping me out. Come back, S1 Cath!!

She was gorgeous, I really think she's had way too much work done.
But man, the Botox is just killing me. The only expression she can make
is the one where she raises her eyebrows.

I completely agree. Sometimes I like Catherine, but then when she gets all bitched out and the "woe is me, I'm a single mom trying to make it in this world as an ex stripper" theme - it kind of bugs me.

and yeah, what's up with the over botoxed face? I thought that it was just my imagination until one of my friends pointed it out too, that she really only had one expression and her face was looking rather "placid"...

I think that the writers did a huge disservice to Catherine's character. It was like they tried to portray the mistake of over controlling that a lot of first time supervisors make but then they had to bash us over the head with it. God forbid a woman might actually get it right on the first try, and this from a show being run by a large group of women.

As much as Gil is my favorite character, I would rather have Catherine as a supervisor as she as least give feedback and even acknowledges when the others do a good job.

I saw an ep the other day - I can't remember which, but it had one of my favorite Cath lines.
She and Gil are looking at some photos on a projector screen and Gil says,"What do you see here?"

"A 5'11" workaholic," is Cath's answer, since Gil is standing right in front of her. That is one of my favorite Cath lines ever. That is what I miss about her character - witty, smart and on equal footing with Gil, unlike everyone else.

So is there anything left to happen to Catherine now? I'd seen Marg say that her character had a lot packed into one episode, but that was kind of absurd.

I hope they work with Catherine this year and let her learn from her past mistakes - I thought she might have been trying during the bar scene at the end of Built to Kill - she wasn't going to take a drink from the guy at the bar (fat lot of good it did her).

I want to like Catherine - in the early seasons she was really kick ass, and I love her dynamic with Grissom. Maybe we can see things look up from here?

Plus, Marg's lips don't look wonked out and she seems less plastic this season.

And also, she spent the entire day having a "bad hair day," because she apparently had no access to product or even a hair dryer after she took that shower in the seedy hotel room. At least she could tie it in a ponytail later.

And, I was wondering about Lindsay. Is Catherine's mom still sleeping on the couch at the house, or does she finally get her own bedroom?

LMFAO! What is up with the title.. I'd like to suggest "the heaving cleavage and the blinding lipgloss" for the thread title next time.


catastrophe that was from Pledging Mr. Johnson, Catherine did blurt out those things because I believe she symphatized for the man, she sometimes lets the cases affect her on a personal level. Yeah I agree I thought she screwed up on that one. But remember in an episode after that (Face Lift) Grissom also screwed up in a similar manner.. he let Tammy Felton's parents see their sociopath daughter which eventually lead to Tammy's escape and Gil's action cost more lives later in season two. So in one way or another they all let the cases affect them.


That was from Season 2's Chaos Theory. I do miss their banter and their witty exchange of lines. I don't think we would see it come back anytime soon though because the writers also screwed up with Gil. They should work on Gil's meandering moral compass first. He kept yakking "Im for the integrity of the lab blah blah" in the previous seasons and then he's now sleeping with a subordinate. Then they should re-hire their previous writers or hire some stand-up comedians or something because their scripts are becoming cheesier as the seasons progress.

Uhm back to Catherine--I just want to say this--Marg kicked ass in Built to Kill Part 1 and 2. She gave a brilliant performance in there.



Maybe Lily (Cath's mom) is living with Sam now. They are together now anyways.. Lily just wasn't in the episode (BTK) because she went on a cruise.

Argh! I've seen earlier episodes and Catherine didn't look bad at all. Now, she has bloated, uneven trout-pout lips covered with pounds of shiny lip gloss. Totally unnecessary, obvious and unattractive, imo. My 11-year-old daughter noticed and said she looked awful. I think she'd look fine without the botox injections, but I guess once you get started you can't stop.

She's all about looking younger, but imo it's not working. Her low-cut blouses are slutty and inappropriate for work. I think a classic, more conservative style is the way to go.

Maybe it's the former stripper thing - I've known a couple of former strippers, and they always have that same vibe. Inappropriate cleavage and trying to dress a bit to young. Of course, these ladies weren't "high class" strippers.

I bet Lindsey hates having the "hot mom".

But Catherine's 'inappropriate attire', 'cleavage' and 'always blow-dried hair-do' started a trend in television.
Helllooo in "House", Cuddy always sports a low-cut top and House is constantly picking on her outfits and her breasts. Heck even in "L&O: SVU" Detective Benson suddenly wore more make-up and fixed her hair.

uh, caizzie, i agree about the thread title. was this thread (and the sofia thread) started by haters?

i personally don't have a problem with cath's wardrobe. a woman should be able to fill out a feminine shirt like a woman.

I'd PM you the answer, but you don't allow it, so here goes.

The threads were started by whoever wanted to start the subject. Anything goes -- mostly. The only threads with a set template into how they should be named are the episode discussion threads.

I think the case here and with Sofia/Sophia, was a user trying to be funny. Threads on other TV show forums here at TWOP are named with similar humor. Generally the posters in the character threads are fans of that character.

If you are really offended by the thread title, then visit the TWOP Troll Patrol to see if they'll change the thread title.

Up to a point, I agree with you. However, some jobs do require a little tone-down on the cleavage and VPL-revealing pants. If Kitty Dukakis is raped and murdered and Stripperella shows up to investigate, I don't think anyone is going to have a lot of confidence in the killer being caught.

Sara and Sophia dress in a more appropriate manner than does Catherine.

Yeah, but I have a feeling many viewers (and posters here) wouldn't have a problem if Nicky or Warwick, for example, went shirtless while digging in the desert. But they might have problems if Greg or Griss did the same.

I think there are two things at work here. First, it may be HDTV that is so unflattering to the actress. Its not unusual for actors to get work done over the summer hiatus but with the new techniques in filming, its not as easy to get away with it as before. Secondly, I think the character dresses trashy because they're trying to use her clothing as a prop to help tell her story. She's smart and no-nonsense but she comes from a trashy background and lives in a trashy town. None of the women are dressed for class on the show, at least none of the regulars. Most of the men look trashy too when you really look at them and compare them to suitable counterparts on other same genre shows. I have to admit, though, that all the CSIs are lax with the clothing. In the real world, things are different, at least in the parts I've been in.

For me, if you're dealing with victims of serious crimes and the mess left behind, then cleavage and light colors should be off the menu. What gets me even more than seeing Catherine's dinners served up every episode is when she changes out of an actual workable outfit into something that makes no sense. As in "Invisible Evidence". She was wearing a dark brown shirt when she arrived at the car wash. But when it comes to time examine the dirty, wet drain, she changes into a WHITE tank top. WTF? What was wrong with what she was wearing in the first place?



I'd definitely NOT have a problem watching a shirtless Grissom. But I'm probably a bit older than most posters on this board.

I'd rather not see a shirtless Greg - he does nothing for me in that regard.

In all honesty, and I'm probably in the minority here (perhaps the only one), that's not why I watch this show at all. Seeing any of the guys with their shirts off would not be any more impressive to me than seeing how inappropriate Catherine's attire is. However, I don't bother with those things normally because I watch the show for the characters and the cases, not for the actors' bodies.

Since we talking about everyone's fashions, I've started a new thread.
Coveralls, tank tops and the fugly hat: Fashions of the CSIs

Let's move this discussion over there.

Oh hell no, I would totally NOT have a problem with a shirtless Grissom. In my house, lol. I am saving myself for Gil Grissom. I am 36, so I don't know how my age figures with most of the posters on the board, but Grissom is hot at any age.

As for Catherine, I used to have the biggest girl crush on her. I thought she was the sexiest thing ever. This was season 3 & 4, now she just looks weird to me. It started with the over collagened lips from S5 & 6, it scared me. And her clothes are starting to bug me more and more as well. I read something somewhere that said IRL CSI's wear almost full body and hair cover so as not to leave their own hair or whatever at a scene, which makes sense. So when I see Catherine in her tank tops, seethrough wifebeater tanks no less, I just have to shake my head. Any IRL CSI's out there that know if this is true?

Actually that made sense to me. I thought it was Cath actually picking the right clothes for the job for a change.

I too would change out of a nice shirt, especially an expensive one, and in to a cheap, disposible, white t-shirt to do a dirty job.

White can be bleached to get it clean. Colours can't, And if you can't even bleach it clean... well a bog-standard t-shirt costs so little that you don't mind turning it into a floor cloth later.

As would I. But that didn't look like a cheap, disposible white t-shirt - it looked like a very nice tank top. And knowing this show and how they clothe the actress, I'm willing to bet it was a very expensive, name brand tank top. Heh.

But I didn't think about the bleach, which is a point. Though when my shirts get dirty I usually don't have to bleach them to get them clean. I'm thinking that in a drain she wouldn't be encountering any blood or grass - just mud and gunk.

I wouldn't mind if they go back to "The Lindsay Well" on the show once or twice. They once tried to give Lindsay "the snark" in Harvest, where she snaps at her mom about her stripping career.

One thing that could be interesting if Lindsay gets involved in a case or finds herself at the Lab and chats it up while waiting for her mom, is that Lindsay winds up revealing she doesn't think what her mother does makes any real difference when it comes to "getting the bad guy." Lindsay's angst/cynicism can come from a real place: her father was killed and no one went to prison for it, despite the evidence.

ITA. That's what I did too in college.. I bring an extra white top when we had to go for tree planting or any of those outdoor-sy activities.

It looked like an inexpensive Hanes tank top to me.

Once again Catherine is throwing me for a loop. First I hate her for just going with the flow in Redrum (and subsequently screwing the case over), and then I find her really great in Law of Gravity.

I wish they would make her more consistent. I can tell Marg is doing the best she can with the material she's given, but Catherine is either the "Healing Goddess of Light" or "The Black Cloud of Politics and Cleaveage". Must she be both?

Good one, I wish that Carol Mendellson (or whatever her name is) didn't have such a girl crush on MH, I feel a lot of the over the top Catherine drama my start there.

You know, I think I know what it is. I hate Catherine when she makes it all about her, and I find her very loveable when she's honestly caring about someone else.

With Keppler, there was nothing selfish about it. Other than her burning loins, but that's no big surprise. I mean, she wanted to help HIM. She wanted to save HIM. There wasn't much in it for her.

My problem with the season opener was that it was just ALL about her. These lab techs who are HELPING HER RUN THE TESTS are basically told to fuck off when they ask anything.

I think CM does have a Mary Su factor going on with Catherine, and I wish that would stop. All of the interactions with Adam Novak feel like, "Hello, he attacked you, and he's still on the menu? Come ON."

It just feels like she's always ready to dole out advice, and yet she's stuck in a 17-year-old's mind when it comes to men - and she has a daughter.

Even that wouldn't be bad, though, if like I said - it didn't feel like the world revolved around her. When they let Marg empathize, the character is fantastic. I loved the whole last third of the final Keppler ep. She was very, very good and I bought the whole performance.

For a few seasons there went from hating Catherine to not caring one way or the other, lately she has worked her way up to I don't mind her (though she sometimes relapses). The Political power loving Catherine, the all about me Catherine drives me nuts. The nurturing Catherine that took Sara out drinking after Hank is the one I wish would show up more often.

Is it me or is MH not looking so good anymore, she looks like she is trying to hard to look younger and comes across (to me) as fake.

I blame that on make-up and hair. The woman looks damn good for her age, so they could try to make her look more her age. The flaxen Goldilocks curls and the eyeshadows are becoming jarring.

I miss the redder hair she had. All the make up and the revealing clothing are not a good look. How old is Catherine supposed to be...late 40s?

Wow, I was so suprised to tune into CSI tonight (usually I watch Grey's) and find Cath wearing an appropriate shirt! Sara's shirt was lower cut than hers! It was nice to see this, and hopefully she will continue with this.

The convo between her and Grissom about the chastity belt was so funny! How old is Lindsey supposed to be again?